


Lessons in Modern Chivalry

by yoshi09



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Basically as a reviewer once told me: 'it's like Annie/Abed/Troy going to Comic-Con!', F/M, also Star Wars. a LOT of Star Wars., lots of ot3 friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 18:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5215553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoshi09/pseuds/yoshi09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After finishing their Han Solo and Luke Skywalker costumes for an upcoming convention, Troy and Abed look to Annie to complete their perfect set.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Convincing Annie

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this fic up on Fanfiction.net for awhile and my beta asked why I never uploaded it onto AO3 so this is all just a giant crosspost/repost. Hope you enjoy. =)

**Author's Note** : For this fic, it helps if you like Star Wars and know the last three (4, 5, and 6) relatively well. I also wrote this WELL BEFORE the Inspector SpaceTime Convention episode (s4e3), which was all a happy surprise when I first watched it.

 **Timeline** : Takes place sometime after Dreamatorium (s3e16) and before the season 3 finale, but it could probably work anytime after the foosball episode.

* * *

_Chapter 1: Convincing Annie_

The moment Annie Edison opened her bedroom door that morning she knew something was different. She paused momentarily, in between rooms, one bunny-slipper clad foot in hers and the other in the living room. Her head cocked minutely to the side, eyebrows wrinkling in confusion and she stepped back, taking the door with her and clicking it back in place into the door frame.

Not a minute passed and she opened it again, slower, and peered outside. It wasn't the living room, that was exactly how she left it after dusting the DVD collection— carefully this time— last night. It wasn't the smell of fresh coffee brewing, the automatic coffee maker she bought Troy, Abed and herself (though admittedly more for herself) as a second unofficial apartment-warming gift performed that delicious little miracle every morning. Neither was it the fact that Luke Skywalker and Han Solo were sitting at the table looking expectantly at her, though usually it was Inspector Spacetime and Constable Reggie, and if she was really lucky she  _might_  get Troy and Abed.

As if the names of her roommates triggered something in her brain she realized the difference instantly— the delightful aroma of eggs, sausages, and was that— it  _was!_ Pancakes. A grin brightened her face considerably as Annie shimmied out from behind the shield of her door and skipped hopped toward where Troy and Abed were seated, dressed respectively as Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. Troy had his best smile on, Abed conversely looked about as readable as a blank slate.

"Okay," Annie began, accompanying the word with a girlish giggle and a soft roll of her eyes, "Tell me. What's the occasion?"

Her roommates stared at her for a beat longer than was socially acceptable and then Troy caved. "Abed," Troy squealed, almost instantaneously collapsing into a heartbroken mess, "I  _knew_  this wouldn't work. I  _knew_  it." He punctuated his "knew's" with small hits of his fist on the table.

Abed looked unmoved as he reflexively put his hand at his best friend's back patting him comfortingly.

Annie immediately moved to Troy's other side, crouching onto her calves to better rub his forearm soothingly, "Oh, Troy..." she looked pointedly at Abed as she mouthed "What's wrong?"

"You're not normally this perceptive." Abed replied, by way of answer, and then he said to Troy, "She's not normally this perceptive."

Troy was nodding, whimpering through dry tears, "I thought it might- might've worked. I didn't think she wo—wo-would get it right awwwaaaay~"

Abed nodded gravely. "I understand, buddy."

Annie was even more confused. "What? Get what?"

"Annie—" Troy said, turning and latching onto her into a sudden death grip of a hug, Abed smoothly transitioning his position so he could still maintain the mechanical patting of his hand, "Annie, tell me ri-right now." Troy continued with fierce determination.

Annie's eyes shifted from left to right, unsure of what to make of the situation, her eyes urgently anchoring on Abed's as if to say "What do I do?" Abed just gave her a pointed look that could have meant "it's your fault" or "how dare you."

Her arms acted on their own accord as they reached up and around Troy to return the hug, "Oh Troy," she said, trying her best to comfort him, "Anything, what do you need to know?"

"We're g-good fr-friends right?"

Annie didn't think it was possible, but Troy's hug tightened, making her gasp out her answer. "Uh huh!"

"And—and good friends d-do anything f-for each other?" Troy was suddenly wracked with a shock of violent sniffling making his shoulders shake and with it, Annie's head. Abed gave her a pointed look.

"Yeah!" Annie managed, "Anything!"

"D-don't lie to meeeee!"

"I'm not!" She reassured quickly.

"P-promise!"

"Promise!" She repeated.

"Cross your heart!"

"Crossed!" She was running out of air.

Troy let go of her altogether, making Annie cough and gasp as she regained her breath.

"Oh good. So you'll be wearing this slave girl Leia outfit we made for you to the convention." Troy's voice was so composed she couldn't help but gawk, while still catching her breath, at her two friends who were now standing before her with the gusto of two new car salesmen with a really great deal. She had looked up from her position near the floor right in time to see Troy pose eagerly, hands palm up to swipe to the side in presentation while Abed held up a hanged metal bikini proudly.

When she didn't respond, Abed added quickly, "It's your cup size. I made sure."

Her shock quickly changed into a look of betrayal. It took her two tries to get her words out. "You... you mean that... you mean that  _that_  was a ploy? The smell of good breakfast to put me in a guaranteed good mood? The 10-hour Star Wars marathon last night? Manipulating my emotions? All of that was a trick to get me to wear  _that?_ "

Troy's winning smile didn't falter. "If by  _that_ , you mean a semester of metalwork and lingerie research to lovingly carve the masterpiece in front of you, then yes."

Annie looked about ready to kill. In fact, she wasn't sure what was stopping her. She was just about to pounce on Troy when Abed stopped her quickly with a raised index finger.

"You promised." Abed reminded.

"Promised!" Troy said from somewhere behind Abed. She didn't know how he got there so quickly.

"No! That was a promise I made to a good friend! Before I found out he's a liar...and a— a LIAR!" She pointed an accusatory finger at Troy and he ducked behind Abed as if to dodge a bullet.

Abed rose his free hand in half defense and half peace offering. "Annie, we were relying on your character trait of kindness and empathy to convince you, but I see now that it'll take more than just a complicated ruse of rousing your emotions." Abed turned around to his best friend and whispered "it was a good idea though" before sharing a quick Troy-and-Abed handshake and then returning his attention to Annie. Troy looked over Abed's shoulder, still uncertain for his safety. "Luckily," Abed continued, "I planned an alternative method." He paused. "You are late for this month's rent."

Annie sobered somewhat. "I don't see how that has to do with anything." she was still huffing, running on the adrenaline of yelling moments before. "I said I'll pay it next week."

"You said that last week," Abed corrected, "You were due one hour and fifty-two minutes ago."

Annie paused.

Abed rose an eyebrow at her lack of response, turning his head a centimeter to the left in confusion. "Would you like me to go into seconds?"

Annie looked away from Abed for a moment, completely derailed from her anger. "I don't get paid until Friday..."

"Precisely." Abed gave her a quick point of his index before holding up the metal bikini again. "Come with us to the convention as Leia Organa and we'll waive this month's rent." Behind Abed's shoulder, Troy rose a hesitant thumbs-up of encouragement.

Annie's eyes flicked from Abed's to the metal bikini, back to Abed again. Her eyes traveled to Troy's bobbing thumb, back to Abed's unwavering eyes and then back to the bikini. She grabbed the hanger out of Abed's hand roughly and trudged towards her bedroom. The door slammed behind her.

"Cool. Cool, cool, cool."


	2. Annie Organa

Twenty minutes later found Abed with a makeshift kitchen towel blindfold practicing easy swings with his Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber Luke Skywalker Blue Blade version in the living room. Troy was watching with barely contained envy from the reclining chair. The Han Solo gun he was holding was cool, but a lightsaber was infinitely cooler.

"Rock-scissors-paper you to trade costumes again?" Troy offered.

Abed, currently one with the force, made one controlled upswing as he replied, "Can't do, Han. Rock-scissors-paper was a one-time sealed deal." He finished with a downswing.

He was right of course. Troy made those rules.

"Can I at least hold it?"

Abed stopped training and stood up from his down-swing position He dropped his other hand that was holding the lightsaber down to his side and with it, his Luke Skywalker pretense. "Sure." He replied with a small shrug.

Troy fist pumped. Abed undid the kitchen towel wrapped over his eyes with his free hand, his back facing the door to Annie's room. He was about to pass off the lightsaber to Troy when her door opened.

Annie stepped out coolly. "Put that thing away, you're gonna get us all killed!"

"Actually, Annie," Abed started, inadvertently pulling the lightsaber away from his excited roommate and making Troy squirm in unbridled, albeit silent, frustration. Troy meant to shoot a look of loathing in Annie's direction but his jaw went slack the instant he set eyes on her. Abed gave the lightsaber a gentle turn of his fingers as he assessed it aloud, turning himself around as he did so, "it's only a LucasFilm official replica from ThinkGeek featuring four motion sensor controlled sound effects from the movie, power-up, idle hum, power-down, removal blade, and accurate ligh—" he looked up and saw Annie for the first time, "—ting."

They stared.

Annie was dressed— or undressed— fully in the Leia Organa slave girl bikini, her hair in the appropriate updo, including the braid extension Abed slipped under her door a minute after she slammed it shut. Both of her roommates were aware that she was gifted in the chest area, but they never quite noticed she had curves on the bottom to balance them out— probably because they mostly saw her waist up. She was hot. Temptress hot. Movie-star-actress-should-not-be-in-our-apartment hot. And she did something with her face that made her eyes look dark and sultry and… alluring.

10 seconds passed.

30.

The cool Leia smile melted off her face and Annie was there again, a cute tentative smile gracing her lips as she fidgeted with her hands and explained, "It's a line from the first Star Wars movie. Well, not the first one  _now_ , but you know, the first one they ever made. Leia says it." She smiled with the appropriate amount of bashfulness to offset her pride of remembering the line in the first place. She practiced it a few times in the mirror just to make sure it would be Troy and Abed approved. A couple more seconds passed with no reaction and the silence was disconcerting. Her shoulder raised just a tad to indicate a question, "Too much?"

A beat of pause.

"Well, I mean, you guys are probably wondering what's with the change of heart," she rolled her eyes again, smiling to herself, and throwing up her hands a little, "But then I noticed both of you worked really hard on this outfit, and even though I don't agree with the way you should have asked me, I am all for supporting the best roommates a girl can ask for." By this point it was clear there must have been something wrong with her because they had been staring at her for such a long time Annie started feeling self-conscious. She looked down at herself, "Did I put it on backwards or something?"

"Apology accepted. Troy," Abed began, not looking away from Annie, "Give me your jacket."

Troy slowly turned his face away from Annie and toward Abed to imply he was listening, though his eyes still glued on her cleavage, "Hm?"

"Give me your jacket." Abed repeated evenly.

Troy's eyes finally left his female roommate to focus on Abed. "But you said you wanted to try something diff— "

"You get a lightsaber."

"Deal."

They did another Troy-and-Abed handshake and it was only then that Abed looked away from Annie to start disrobing and effectively trade costumes with his best friend. It seemed like they finally regained their senses.

"Did I do something wrong?" Annie asked, taking a hesitant step forward as the boys traded articles of clothing.

"No, Annie," Troy said with a reassuring smile, "Trust me," he rose his eyebrows at her breasts, "You did everything right."

Annie gasped in offense, crossing her arms over her chest though it only increased the exposure of skin.

"God bless America." Troy's grin widened.

"Troy!" she said in exasperation.

"You did something different with your eyes."Abed interrupted, as if mentioning a simple observation.

Annie dropped her arms and giggled a little, pleased that Abed of all people would notice her makeup. "It was just a little bit of dabbling for a sultry look. You know."

Abed shook his head, clipping the gun holster belt properly around his hips. "No. It wasn't that. You don't need makeup to make you look sultry." Abed said matter-of-factly, overlooking Annie's bashful, flattered smile. "It's something else. I think it was your confidence." He stopped adjusting his holster, as if some kind of epiphany came to him. "Ah. That was it. You're hotter when you're confident." He made his hand into a gun shape and shot it at her with a subdued "pew" sound.

"Oh." Annie looked shyly down at the ground, unsure what to do with the uncalled for compliment. "Abed…"

"Easy, Annie. I was complimenting your Leia."

"Oh." Annie said, caught off guard too quickly to cover up how flustered she suddenly felt. She pushed a stray hair from her face and behind her ear. "I knew that."

Abed cocked his head a little in confusion, but before he could pursue the meaning behind her reaction Troy interrupted them.

"We ready to go?" Troy had finished buckling his own belt around the Skywalker tunic and already had the apartment door propped open with his foot.

"Yep!" Abed replied easily. "One second." He put the Han Solo vest on coolly and instantly his face changed. He looked at Annie with a lop-sided smile, giving her a deliberate once over before gesturing to the door. "Your Worship."

Annie crossed her arms again. "Han." She huffed back. She trudged out of the apartment, unsure of why she was suddenly so annoyed with Abed.


	3. For the Love of Firefly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost 100% of Abed's lines are directly from the Star Wars movies, but are done with good fun and with no copyright infringement intended. Please don't sue me. I am a poor college student.

 " _-And_ we had to take  _my_  car?" Annie exclaimed from the driver's seat. They were halfway to the convention and she still couldn't get over how her roommates managed to get her into this absurd situation— much less how they got her to drive to it.

"We asked Pierce for his black Mustang because it looks like the Batmobile, but he said no." said Troy soothingly from the passenger seat. He began cutting another small piece of pancake from the sack breakfast Abed had thoughtfully brought with him before leaving the apartment having noticed Annie hadn't eaten since she woke up. Troy forked the piece, ignoring Annie's barely controlled temper as he instructed her to say "ah." She did so and he slipped the small pancake portion into her mouth. She chewed it angrily.

"My car can barely make it to Greendale and back without losing a wheel and you expect it to go past 20 miles?"

Abed leaned forward from the backseat, casually draping his arm over the shoulder of the driver seat as he did so. "She'll make it point five past lightspeed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

"Abed!" Annie shouted, "No more Han Solo lines until we get to the convention!"

Annie had been particularly short with him the whole car ride.

"Look, Your Worshipfulness, let's get one thing straight. I take orders from just one person: me."

"Han— Abed! I will take your blaster and shoot you with it if you don't stop it right now."

Abed Solo looked over at Troy and tilted his head over at Annie subtly, "Wonderful girl. Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her."

Troy, seemingly unaffected by argument beside him, merely lifted a cut piece of sausage to Abed's lips. Abed shook his head so Troy moved on to feed the piece to Annie instead.

* * *

Troy and Abed expected their group to be popular with pictures during the convention, but they didn't expect themselves to be  _this_  popular. Especially Annie. It had gotten to the point that they couldn't take four steps (and it  _was_  four, Abed kept count) before someone stopped them to request pictures. They already missed two panels they wanted to go see because of it. And it didn't help either that after taking a group photo the convention-goers would usually request "just-one-with-Leia" which eventually made Troy a little on the jealous side and resulted in Luke Skywalker photo bombs. He realized quickly that him photo bombing only made things take longer since people ended up having to take the picture again.

It was such an occurrence now, a group of amateur photographers were around Annie who basked and worked each flash of their cameras while Troy and Abed waited patiently for them to get their fill.

Troy looked enviously on. "Maybe I should have worn the slave girl bikini."

Abed, who had been watching Annie carefully ever since they arrived to the convention, leaned closer to Troy without looking away from their female roommate. "Don't get cocky, kid."

Troy breathed in deeply as if to help reign in his emotions and nodded in agreement. "Right. But we got to get Leia moving if we want to make it to the Firefly 10-year Anniversary Reunion panel."

"We can't miss the Firefly 10-year Anniversary Reunion panel." Abed agreed, easily breaking character for one of the best shows to ever bless television blasphemously canceled six-seasons-but-at-least-had-a-movie too early. Abed and Troy shared a moment of silence.

Abed made a quick decision. Without a second to lose, he strode through the half-circle of photographers oogling Annie and grabbed her hand before pulling her rudely (as Annie saw it) out of the limelight.

"Hey asshole! We weren't finished taking pictures yet!" one of the photographers nearest Abed shouted.

Abed Solo turned swiftly around, his toy blaster already at the photographer's throat. "Watch your mouth, kid."

The photographer immediately put his hands up.

Troy, suddenly at Abed's side, pulled impatiently at his roommate's sleeve. "Han, we got about 20 minutes to get to the other side of the convention. The odds of us making the panel are—"

"Never tell me the odds." Abed coolly holstered his blaster.

They immediately began zig-zagging through convention-goers so quickly Annie had to run to keep up. Abed was half pulling and half dragging her with them by the hand. "Abed! What are you doing! Where are we going?" Annie yelled.

Abed and Troy continued on in a one-minded haze paying Annie no heed.

"Stay sharp, there's two coming in. They're gonna try and cut us off." Abed Solo said to Troy Skywalker in reference to two convention attendees approaching them with cameras at the ready.

"Can't we outrun them?" Troy Skywalker asked.

Abed shook his head and nodded as indication toward Annie. "Can't. We're hauling precious cargo. We'll be safe enough once we make the jump into hyperspace. Besides, I know a few maneuvers. We'll lose 'em."

"Troy! Abed! What's going on? That was really rude back there!" Annie shouted. She started to struggle with Abed's handhold, finally catching Abed's attention and forcing him to pause in his haste. An attendee who was rushing by bumped Annie's shoulder hard and she fell forward clumsily into Abed's arms.

Troy and Annie both let out an "ah!" of indignation and Troy, offended on Annie's behalf, pulled out his lightsaber and turned it on. "He did not even apologize! Give me a moment." He went off to chase after the attendee. It was only then that Annie noticed she was still in Abed's arms. She moved to distance herself from him, but Abed's gentle hold around her tightened into firm and he looked to have no intention of letting her go anytime soon.

"Abed!" Annie started, frustrated, "Let go!"

"Shh." Abed wasn't looking at her, just staring after where Troy ran off to give the rude attendee a piece of his mind.

Annie's frustration quickly turned into flustered embarrassment. "Let go, please!"

"Don't get excited."

"Han— Abed, being held by you is  _not_  making me excited." There was a visible flush on Annie's cheeks that said the contrary.

Abed looked down at his scantily clad roommate. "Sorry sweetheart. I haven't got time for anything else."

Before Annie could form a retort Troy was running back, his lightsaber back on his belt. "He apologized. He even gave me a 20." Troy made to move as if to pull out the bill and show them, but Abed Solo stopped him.

"We've got four coming in tight." He let go of Annie altogether, his attention focused on four incoming convention-goers hastily pulling out their cameras when they sighted them.

"Will someone please tell me what I'm being dragged into?" Annie said in exasperation. "People just want to take pictures of us and I don't see why we're avoiding them all."

Abed snapped his attention back to Annie Organa. "Look, I ain't in this for your revolution, and I'm not in it for you, princess. I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money."

Annie rolled her eyes. "Troy, can you translate?"

"He means to say that there's a Firefly 10-year Anniversary Reunion panel starting in..." Troy lifted the sleeve of his tunic to look at his Spider-Man watch, "...12 minutes, and we already missed two panels for pictures so he'd really appreciate it if we start hustling." Troy's eyes grew large as the realization dawned on him. "Oh my God, 12 MINUTES! Han, we gotta move!"

Abed glanced to his right, taking in the four attendees closing in on them, one of which opened her mouth to begin asking for a picture. He quickly looked away and to his left, scanning the area briefly. "We have to go into the exhibit hall." Abed concluded.

Troy and Annie's expressions grew grave.

"You're not saying we're actually going  _in_  the exhibit hall, right?"

Abed Solo pulled out his blaster, cocking it. "They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?" He offered his free hand to Annie.

Annie took hold of it. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Yeah, me too."

Troy smiled in admiration. "Abed, you have  _g_ _ot_  to tell me how you remember all those Star Wars lines."

"Hey, Luke, thanks—"

"Do we  _really_  have time for this now?" Annie interrupted, "We probably have 10-11 minutes before the panel starts, right?"

Troy nodded.

"I'm not going to argue with that." Abed Solo murmured under his breath. He tightened his grip on Annie's hand and led the way into the busiest part of the convention.


	4. Convention Mayhem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again a majority of Abed's lines in this chapter are actually said in the Star Wars movies (at least for the first half of the chapter), but it's all in good fun and with no copyright infringement intended. Don't sue me, I could barely pay for college.

They bobbed and weaved past a Legend of Korra cosplay group, Troy snapping a quick picture of them as he ran by, followed a couple seconds later by a small, persistent herd of photographers. So far, no serious casualties took place— they almost lost Troy Skywalker when someone asked for his picture and his picture alone and he had been so flattered he actually stopped, but Annie grabbed his hand and yanked him to safety. Other than that, the going was good and they were making good time. They ducked behind a shelf full of free leaflets no one wanted to catch their breath. Abed dropped Annie's hand in favor of holding his blaster with both hands.

"We're going to get pulverized if we stay out here much longer." Annie Organa said through short rapid breaths. She smiled pridefully and added, "That was a direct quote from Star Wars episode five."

Troy smiled proudly at her. "Go Annie!"

Abed Solo made a brief glance behind the shelf before returning to hiding with them. He shook his head, giving each of them a serious look and causing his roommates to sober quickly. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one. I say we continue making a run for it but it's going to be close." He looked at Troy. "Luke?"

Troy peeked from behind the shelf himself before turning quickly back to his friends. His hands were on his hips as he mirrored Abed's grave expression. "Are you kidding? At the rate they're gaining?" He looked at Annie and whispered, "Star Wars episode four: A New Hope."

Annie did an excited silent clap of approval.

Troy grinned before schooling his face into serious again. "I think we'll have to pose for a couple pictures to keep them satisfied before we sprint the last couple steps and the flight of stairs leading to the panel."

Abed Solo chanced another look behind the shelf. "Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, farm boy. Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova, and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"

Troy looked down at the ground meaningfully. "Huh. I never thought of that."

"Um," Annie said, tapping both Troy and Abed on their arms quickly. "We've been spotted from behind."

Abed and Troy just had enough time to turn around before a cute boy that must have been barely 10 years old wearing a Star Wars shirt approached them with a digital camera at the ready. "Can I take a picture of you guys?"

"Awe," Annie said, "Of course you ca—"

"Luke, stop her."

"Awe, but Han, look it 'im! He's so cute!" Troy said, his voice set in a falsetto that almost matched Annie's octave. Abed gave him a look of disapproval and Troy cleared his throat. "Um, what I meant to say is let's grill something, grow a beard, play football and use some power tools." Troy sniffed and then spit on the ground for good measure.

Annie made a sound of offense and disgust. "Ew! Troy! That's gross," she turned to the boy, "We'd love to pose for you."

"Thank you. You're the prettiest Leia ever."

"Awwwe." she looked at Abed and Troy as if to say 'Did you hear that? He is so precious!' She immediately warmed to him. "Come on guys, just one picture for him."

"All right, all right." Abed Solo said, conceding, his hands and gun raised as if in surrender. Troy pulled out his lightsaber to pose. Annie leaned close to Abed, her hand pressed upon his chest in classic damsel posing while Abed put an arm around her waist, his other hand holding his gun cooly toward the camera.

The boy's camera flashed.

It took all of two seconds.

Suddenly there were flashes all around them, popping in blinding snaps of light. The small herd of photographers that had been pursuing them had finally caught up, and as if their camera flashes were some kind of mating call, attendees from every walk of the convention seemed to convene in a claustrophobic wall of flickering light.

"Oh my God, what happened!" Troy shrieked, his emotions spiking to acute fear. "Did I black out or something?"

Annie mirrored his distress. "They came out of nowhere! Abed, do something!"

Abed Solo shielded his eyes with his gun his other arm still around Annie. "Look, I had everything under control until you led us down here!"

"It's just a couple pictures and then we could bolt to the panel!" Annie lied, trying to smooth over the blame, "It could be worse!"

Just then a camera crew and a reporter shouldered their way through the crowd, bee-lining toward them with the clear intention of a live interview.

"It's worse." Abed Solo deadpanned.

"My eyes!" Troy howled, "They burn!"


	5. Modern Chivalry

"I can't believe we missed the Firefly panel for dumb pictures and a bad interview." Troy said, defeated. The crowd of photographers had dissipated somewhat leaving nothing but a slight headache from all the camera flashes Troy was massaging out through slow circular rubs on his temples. Abed and Troy were sitting with their backs against the shelf in respective states of disappointment. Annie was a couple feet away, still being interviewed by the overly-friendly and greasy (as Troy described him) reporter that had approached them with a camera crew fifteen minutes before.

"I don't know what we're gonna do now. Even if I could take off, we could never get past the tractor beam." Abed Solo pointed casually with his blaster at the camera crew gathered around Annie, an overly-bright light casting a literal spotlight on her and the interviewer.

Troy moved on to massaging his eyebrows now. "Well I know what I'm going to do. I am  _never_  going to pose for another picture again."

A girl wearing an Avengers shirt spotted Troy as she walked by and lifted her camera, "Can I take a picture?"

Troy immediately stood up, pulled out his lightsaber and gave her a winning smile. The girl snapped a picture.

"Thank you!" She said excitedly.

"Yup! Anytime!" As soon as she walked away Troy looked stoic once more. "I mean it, Han, when I say never again. People are going to miss taking pictures of me..."

Nearby, the reporter started laughing raucously. Abed looked up in the camera crew and Annie's direction while Troy contemplated his new boycott in the name of Firefly.

Annie was still floundering under the limelight, constantly brushing her hair behind her ear, fidgeting nervously under the camera's focus.

"No, really," Annie said, giggling a little too much, "No guys have been giving me any trouble in this outfit. Everyone's been really nice."

The reporter winked at her. "I bet." His hand swept discreetly out of the camera's view and under the garment overlaying her metal bikini bottom. Annie let out a surprised squeal before she jumped away from the reporter in shock. Her mouth opened in retaliation, closed with her speechlessness as she attempted to find the right words—

Abed seemed to have come out of nowhere. "Allow me, your Worshipfulness."

There was a loud reverberating crack as Abed's hand made contact with the reporter's nose. Annie gasped. The reporter crumpled to the ground.

Troy looked up from his thinking only in time to see Abed's good work. He dashed over to get a better view, and ever the supportive best friend even without context, yelled out, "For Firefly!"

Abed Solo looked down at the fallen man, writhing on the ground and holding his face. "He punched me! He fuckin' punched me!" There were shouts for security.

"Oh. My. God." Annie whispered. "Did that just happen?" She held on Troy's shoulder for support.

"Han's the man!" Troy whooped. He was about to begin a Troy-and-Abed handshake but his eyes spied something in the crowd. He dropped his hands. "Guys, we gotta go." Two security guards were shoving their way through the crowd. "Like, now."

"Good call, kid." Abed said. He holstered his blaster and then looked at the camera still rolling in front of him. "Sorry about the mess." He turned to his roommates, perfectly cool, "Let's get out of here."

Annie was still staring at the injured reporter, unmoving. Troy tapped Annie on the arm. "Um, I don't mean to interrupt whatever moment you're having, but in case you haven't noticed, Han is being really awesome right now and I don't want to miss anything." Annie kept staring. Troy tried a different approach. "If you get arrested that won't look good next to a 4.0 GPA."

Annie broke out of her reverie. "Right. Let's go guys!"

Troy led the way with Annie and Abed in tow. Behind them, they could hear the security guards yelling for people to stop them. Troy dodged past slow moving convention goers, aiming for the outskirts of the exhibit hall where the crowds thinned. Annie and Abed dashed closely behind him.

"What  _god_  did we anger today?" Troy yelled, chancing a brief glance over his shoulder.

"Abed, a crazy Han Solo idea would be good right now!"

"Right." Abed moved in front of Troy. "Luke, I'm going to take the helm."

"You got it, Captain!"

Troy fell back next to Annie. Abed swerved to the left and back into the thick throng of attendees.

"Abed! What are you doing!" Annie yelled.

"Something crazy." Abed was forced to slow to a waddling gait as the crowd thickened to almost a halt. Troy and Annie had no choice but to do the same. Abed looked over his shoulder to talk to his roommates. "Blend in with the crowd. It's hard for us to move, it'll be hard for those Imperials to move. And just as hard for them to find us."

"Oh!" Troy said in recognition. "Like 'Where's Waldo?'"

"Watch out." Annie whispered, "There's one looking our way."

They all ducked in unison, hiding behind various attendees' heads, hair, and cosplay attire. Abed chanced a glance in the guard's direction and seeing that he was walking away from them, gave his friends a signal of safety. They straightened their postures, continuing onward at their slow pace.

"It only takes one to sound the alarm." Annie said softly. "Star Wars episode six. Return of the Jedi."

Troy mouthed "nice one" in her direction.

"Then we'll do it real quiet-like." Abed replied, seamlessly adding Han's response to the line.

Troy's eyes rolled back as if he experienced something incredibly gratifying. "I have the best friends  _ever—_ Oh my  _God_  is that a Rainbow Dash cosplay?"

Slowly walking in their direction was a My Little Pony cosplay of Rainbow Dash. Annie and Abed exchanged a look and then grabbed Troy at the same time before he could even reach for his camera.

"Troy, no, you're stronger than this." Annie said, her voice on edge. She spotted two security guards scoping the crowd. They weren't close but they would be able to see them if they weren't careful.

"But, Rainbow Dash, Annie." Troy whimpered helplessly, "Rain. Bow. Dash. He's your favorite too!"

Annie gave him a look that said "no."

Troy immediately appealed to Abed instead, "Han, please? Just one picture. You let Annie take one before."

"Yeah, and look what good that did us." Annie exclaimed, gesturing around them. "Abed  _punched_  someone, we're basically fugitives at a convention,  _and_  we missed the Firefly panel."

At the mention of the last both Troy and Abed snapped their attention to her, wounded.

"Okay, the Firefly part was a low blow..."

They still were looking at her. Annie's eyes flickered from Abed's to Troy's and back again. She gnawed on her bottom lip, guiltily. Then caved.

"Okay, fine! You two are guilt machines! You can take one picture."

Troy fist pumped. Abed said a low, "Good job, kid." meant for Troy's ears.

Rainbow Dash was really close now so Troy reached over and tapped the cosplayer on the shoulder to request a picture. The cosplayer paused and Troy raised his camera. Troy pressed down the capture button. The camera flashed.

Drawing all security guards scanning the crowd's focus.

"There they are!" yelled one of them.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God!" Annie squeaked, grabbing onto Abed's arm.

"Here's where the fun begins." Abed pulled out his blaster. He began shouldering his way through the crowd, Annie yelling out apologies in his wake.

Troy was a step behind them, shoving his camera quickly back into his pocket. "Why! Why do we only like cool things?"

"Stop them!" A guard yelled from somewhere behind them, his voice closer than they preferred.

"Over there!" Annie said urgently to Abed, pointing with her free hand at two open double doors. "It's an exit leading out of the exhibit hall!"

Abed and Annie dodged a couple holding up a camera trying to film the event unfolding before them. Troy ran by them flashing a quick smile.

As they reached the outskirts of the exhibit hall the crowd thinned and they picked up speed— only to stop haphazardly when they were faced by three security guards checking convention badges right at the door.

Annie's eyes widened in fear.

The three security guards turned and looked at them.

Troy let out a small yelp, his hands jumping to his mouth.

They froze.

A second passed.

Troy lifted his hands from his mouth minutely. "Han... don't get me wrong, I think you were super awesome in all your movies but," he licked his lips, lowering his voice further, "I think this was a bad idea."

Abed Solo was the only one who seemed calm about the situation. "Out of the frying pan and into the fryer, huh pal? How should I know we'd come outta hyperspace into the middle of an Imperial convoy? At least against these fighters we got more of a chance. However slim…" He pulled out his blaster and aimed it at them.

The guards rose their hands in the air quickly. The one to the left spoke first, "Hey man, we like you guys' costumes and all but do you guys mind moving? You're slowing traffic and we have badges to check."

Annie, Troy and Abed exchanged glances. Abed suspiciously lowered his blaster.

Seeing as her two roommates weren't saying anything, Annie gave the security guards a friendly smile. "Thank you, sirs. We'll be right on our law-abiding, non-violent way!" she chirped.

The guards just went back to checking attendee badges. Annie walked nervously forward and Troy followed. Abed was still not convinced so he kept the blaster out just in case. They passed the guards and went through the exit.

"Stay cool guys, stay cool." Annie murmured.

"I'm cool." Troy replied, constantly looking over his shoulder, "I'm like a refrigerator I'm so cool. I can keep things chill for hours. Like soda. Or butter. A yoyo. I can keep anything cool."

Just then one of the guards who had been chasing them stopped in front of the guards they just passed. He began talking animatedly to one of them, his hands holding up three fingers. The guard that let them through nodded in recognition and then pointed in their direction. The other guard turned on his radio as if to call back up.

"Ohhh God." Annie yelled, "Run!"

Annie, Abed, and Troy were running past attendees, barely evading a family of five and two ghostbusters. Troy, adept at both football and dancing, took the front, twisting and twirling perfectly out of the way of the convention goers.

"They're in the front too!" Troy exclaimed, spotting a handful of security who didn't see them yet but were jogging in their direction.

Annie pointed at a empty volunteer waiting area, sectioned off with waist-high rails covered in a fabric similar to curtain to create walls for a makeshift room."Quick, let's hide behind those rails."

Abed and Troy jumped over the rail and immediately crouched behind it so they were hidden by the curtain-fabric. Annie was about to jump as well, hesitated, and ran around the rail instead. She crouched next to them. They were all breathing heavily from the quick bursts of exercise.

"Ideas?" Annie asked.

They were essentially trapped, with nothing near them save a couple chairs and a tiled corridor leading to a women's restroom behind them.

"It's not going to take them long to figure out what's happened to us." Abed Solo said through breaths.

"We can all just run again." Troy suggested.

Abed looked over the railing quickly and then hid again. He shook his head. "They're too close. If they see three people making a run for it they'll see us for sure. There's only room for one of us to make it out of here without detection." Abed turned to Troy, "Leia and I will take care of this, go on ahead."

Troy Skywalker's eyes moved from Abed Solo's to Annie Organa's. "I'm not leaving without you two."

Annie nodded encouragingly, her expression serious and meaningful. "This isn't good bye. We'll see each other soon. We have your back, Troy."

Troy looked back at Abed Solo as he moved to get up, as if to offer a distraction for the guards. Troy put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "There may be more of them out there."

Abed gave him a lop-sided smile. "Hey, it's me."

Troy bit his lip, trying to prevent the sudden urge to cry. "I love you."

Abed nodded in understanding. "I know."

Troy quickly got up and jumped the railing, his forearm going to his face to rub tears away as he joined the jostling crowd of attendees. And then he was gone.

Mere yards away, Abed and Annie could see the group of angry security guards much closer than before. The guards still hadn't seen them as the volunteer booth curtain had given them sufficient cover so far, but the chances of them getting away were grim. Abed's eyes locked with Annie's. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

As if something just dawned on her, Annie grabbed Abed's wrist with a new urgency. "It's not over yet!" She pulled him into the doorless corridor of the women's restroom, turning the corner and out of sight right as they heard the security guards run by.

They waited with bated breath for a couple of tense seconds, Abed's back up against the wall with Annie facing him, her forearms on either side of his arms as if to hold him there. The moment passed and Annie looked tentatively around the corner. Abed followed suit.

"Close one." He commented, a bit of admiration slipping into his Han Solo voice.

Annie pushed up off him. "We can never be too sure." She moved to reach for his hand so as to drag him toward a stall for even more cover but retracted her hand immediately. "Oh my God! Abed!"

"You all right, Princess?"

"Your hand!" she squeaked, her voice reaching a new, hysteric octave. Annie reached for his wrist again, this time carefully and with both hands. She pulled up his wrist and with it, his hand, closer to her face, her breathing shallow. His hand was swollen, telltale bruising on parts of his knuckles and the side of his palm. She turned it slowly, her fingers tracing his with a gentle, tentative examination.

Her eyes flicked up to his inquisitive ones. She was trying hard to remain calm, and failing. How could she have missed it? The way Abed was doing everything one-handed for the last half hour? "Abed, I think your hand is broken." She cradled his hand cautiously. "Does it hurt?"

Abed Solo raised an eyebrow, his words dripping with innuendo. "That depends. Are you going to play nurse?"

Her previous irritation with Abed Solo immediately returned. "Abed! Right now is not the time to be playing Han Solo! You're injured!"

"You going to do something about it?" he asked, taking a step closer to her.

Annie flushed visibly. She lowered her gaze shyly. "Well, I—"

Just then a toilet flushed and an old lady exited the stall. She met eyes with Annie and Abed, quickly assessed their intimate closeness then stepped back into the stall, closing the door again.

"Maybe we should just take you to a real nurse." Annie began, letting out a short embarrassed giggle. She realized she was still holding Abed's hand and gently moved it back to his side before letting it go. She giggled again, more bashful than before.

Abed Solo gestured with his uninjured hand toward the restroom exit. "Lead the way, your Worshipfulness."


	6. Smooth Talker

Annie and Abed located the First Aid office of the convention easily. Luckily it wasn't far from the restroom so they didn't have to do much stealthy dodging of security guards. What the problem was, was the reception nurse at the desk. She kept pressing that they had to fill out paperwork prior to anyone giving Abed's hand a look. But paperwork took time, and Annie didn't want them to be in any one place for too long with security after them.

She tried again, curtly, "Listen, Miss," she looked at the convention nurse's name tag, "Rosemary, we're not asking for any medication. We just want someone to verify a broken hand. And it'd just happen to be great if you could put like a splint or something on it too."

"I understand, Miss..."

"Leia," Annie offered quickly.

"...Leia," Rosemary looked both annoyed and unconvinced, "but we have a policy. We make no exceptions."

"Please?" Annie said, hoping her large eyes and quivering lip wouldn't let her down.

"Leia, I am not your father nor am I your boyfriend that get up will not work on me."

Frustrated, Annie hit her fist on the countertop. "Listen you—!"

"Pardon my little friend here," Abed Solo interrupted, smoothly. He was adjusting his vest.

Annie opened and closed her mouth wordlessly in offense at his interjection.

Abed had been sitting nearby patiently to let Annie talk to the nurse and only now came up to the desk after seeing Annie about to lose it. "Han Solo. I'm the captain of the Millennium Falcon." He offered the nurse his uninjured hand. The nurse smiled and took it, but instead of shaking hands, Abed smoothly kissed the knuckle of her forefinger and gave her a discreet wink. Annie let out a small sound of protest. The nurse gasped and then giggled.

"I'm Rosemary."

"Well, Rosemary," he was still holding onto her hand, his voice taking on a low, soothing tenor, "We've got a panel to catch and it's impossible to go lightspeed. My hyperdrive motivator has been damaged, and even after I've isolated the reverse power flux coupling, there's still the horizontal boosters and alluvial dampers, you read me?"

Rosemary giggled again and nodded. Annie rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of disgust. Clearly, the nurse did  _not_ read Abed. She wasn't even that pretty.

"So if you'd be so kind to giving me some help with repairs..." he let the last word dangle suggestively, "I'll promise your efforts won't go unrewarded." He placed her hand on the desk.

The nurse, all buttered up now, let out a soft sigh. There was a flush on her cheeks. "Well," Rosemary began cheekily,"explain the nature of your emergency."

Annie let out another small "ah!"of offense at how easily Abed got his way.

Abed put his injured hand on the countertop. The nurse tut-tutted, and reached over to "examine" his hand, her fingers playing way too familiarly on the back of his palm, and running a fingertip seductively over his knuckles. "Definitely a fracture. So what happened?" the nurse asked, lowly.

Unable to take much more of the nonsense before her any longer, Annie slammed her hand on the table. "He tripped."

The convention nurse rose an eyebrow at Annie, as if remembering she was there.

"Onto his fist."  _And into someone's face_. She finished in her head.

"Oh, is that so?" the nurse asked, appealing to Abed.

Abed gave her a singular, cool nod, "It was a hard fall."

"Well lucky for you we have some splinting material, and a roll of gauze right in the back cabinet."

"Thanks, doll." Abed replied.

The nurse gave Abed a lingering gaze. "I'll be right back." she put Abed's hand gently back on the table and walked to the back room, returning no more than a minute later. She laid out the newly acquired materials in front of her. She reached for Abed's hand.

"Shouldn't you be doing this in some room?" Annie said in annoyance.

"No, I can do him right here." She paused and blushed furiously at the slip up in her choice of words. The nurse gave Abed a sideways glance. "Unless... you want to go somewhere more... private?"

Before Abed could respond, Annie grabbed all of the splinting materials impatiently. "Nevermind. I can splint it myself." She stalked off, pulling Abed behind her by his good hand.

* * *

They were in the women's restroom again, this time in a stall. Abed was holding the gauze and a roll of athletic tape in his free hand while Annie was folding the splinting material up and around the sides of his wrist. They hadn't said much since they entered the stall, save for Annie instructing him to hold the medical material she took from the nurse.

"Gauze." she said, holding out the hand that wasn't holding up Abed's. Abed handed it to her. She unraveled it skillfully, rolling the gauze from one end of the splint at his wrist, to the other at his hand.

"Whaddya think?" Abed Solo began, "You think a nurse and a guy like me—"

"No." Annie said sharply. She was wrapping quicker now.

"Princess, are you jealous?"

"I'd sooner be jealous of Chewbacca's hair, Abed." She huffed.

"That's a good story. I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight."

Annie blushed and worked more determinedly at wrapping his hand. She continued on, angrily. "Where did you get all that engine talk from? Han Solo doesn't say any of that."

Abed Solo shrugged. "Some mumbo-jumbo C-3PO says. Who knew all that talk that useless droid spews actually had some use?" He smirked, "But don't change the subject, Princess."

She took the athletic tape from Abed's hand without asking, securing the gauze in place. She began adjusting the padding under his palm to ensure there were no empty spaces. "You know what? You  _do_  make the perfect Han, Abed." Annie began annoyed, "You're becoming more and more like a scoundrel."

"Scoundrel? You like me because I'm a scoundrel—"

"Is it too tight?" Annie interrupted, derailing Abed's smooth transition into the Star Wars kiss scene.

"It's fine, your Worshipfulness _._ "

"Good." She let go of his hand. "I'm going to call Troy."

"Luke? Why?"

"To check on your best friend. To make sure he's okay?" Annie realized she was giving Abed a lot of sass during the last couple minutes, and really all he did was get them out of a situation faster than paperwork. Annie took a deep breath. "I just want to check in on him." She said, sounding more like herself and less like the angry version... of herself.

Abed reached for her hand with his uninjured one and brought it up to his chest. He began rubbing her fingers with his thumb. "You're trembling."

For a moment Annie welcomed the touch, a coy smile gracing her lips as her eyes shyly flicked from his soothing thumb playing on her fingers to the lop-sided smile on Abed Solo's face. Then she remembered Abed Solo's flirting with the nurse and her anger resurfaced. "I'm  _not_  trembling." She pulled her hand away from his gruffly, disrupting yet another transition to the same kiss scene. "And you're being weird."

Abed was unruffled. "Come on, admit it. Sometimes you think I'm all right."

She reached into one of the Abed Solo's vest pockets and pulled out his phone. "I'm calling Troy."

"I already did, Princess."

"What? When?"

"While you spoke with the nurse. Luke said he put his hood up and the security guards didn't recognize him."

Annie was flabbergasted. "That worked?"

"The Force is with him." Abed Solo smirked. He continued on, "He said he had a plan and had a message for you on the holo." He took the phone smoothly from her palm, pressed a couple buttons that led to voicemail and then put it on speaker. A couple seconds later came Troy's voice: "I'll meet you back at the fleet. Repeat. I'll meet you back at the fleet." then quickly, "Star Wars episode six." The line cut.

"He'll meet us back at the fleet? What does that mean?"

Abed gave her a lop-sided smile. "He means the ship we came in on."

* * *

20 minutes later found Annie and Abed Solo back at Annie's car, parked two blocks away from the convention. Leaving the convention and avoiding security was easy enough, but Troy was nowhere in sight which made Annie anxious.

She had her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned on the driver's side door of her car, keeping a lookout in case Troy crossed her line of vision. Abed did the same a foot or so to her left. They hadn't exchanged a word for the five minutes since they had arrived which was even stranger because Annie was starting to feel like she did something wrong, and she  _knew_  she didn't do anything wrong… did she? Her mind started going over scenarios that happened during their walk to her car, but nothing was jogging her memory. Unless… Abed was giving her the cold shoulder about the Firefly panel. She never did apologize about them missing it.

She bit her bottom lip, and gave Abed a subtle sideways glance. Abed was looking away from her altogether, his shoulder relaxed and at ease as he scanned across the road for any signs for his best friend. His unwrapped hand was casually fingering the hilt of his toy blaster as he did so. Her eyes moved to his injured hand. That was her fault too then. If she hadn't let the reporter interview her they wouldn't have missed the panel and Abed wouldn't have had the time to contemplate who he should blame and reign justice upon. She really screwed up this time. The guilt was eating at her. She could feel it gnawing at her stomach, nipping her shoulders— though that could have been just the cold as the afternoon began its transition into evening. The costume Troy and Abed made her put on wasn't doing her any favors in terms of warmth.

She took a deep breath, opening her mouth to prepare for an apology but the words caught in her throat. Was it really her fault? It  _was_  Abed and Troy who got her in this mess in the first place. And she put herself in danger as well, putting her perfect 4.0 GPA on the line ever since Abed punched that innocent reporter— no. She would not make an excuse to avoid apologizing.

"Listen," Annie began, licking her lips and diverting her gaze to the ground as soon as Abed turned to look back at her. "Abed, I need to talk to you."

"I'm all ears, Princess."

"No, I mean  _you_."

Abed Solo spread his arms, hands at his sides as if to say "go on."

All of a sudden a hooded man appeared from behind the car. "Hey!"

Annie screamed.

Abed pulled out his blaster.

 


	7. A moment

The man pulled down his hood, revealing a grinning Troy.

Annie clutched her chest, breathing hard as she calmed herself down. "Troy!" then as an afterthought to his cheap hooded disguise, "I can't believe that actually worked."

Troy walked over to them, reaching forward to give Abed a long-awaited Troy-and-Abed handshake, only to find Abed's hand was wrapped. "Han, what happened?"

"It's not wise to upset a Wookie."

Troy's eyes grew large. He leaned in close, his voice lowering to a slow, urgent whisper. "You punched a Wookie?"

Abed Solo nodded once.

Troy leaned back. "Whoa."

Annie chose not to correct Troy's thoughts as she gave him a hug of greeting. "It's good to know you made it out."

"Not out.  _In_." Troy said.

Abed Solo rose an eyebrow.

Troy gave him a slow nod.

"Is this a movie reference I'm not getting?" Annie asked.

"No, Annie. We're not leaving yet. We're going back in there." Troy pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and offered it to her. Annie took it.

"'Putting the pop in your culture one disc at a time'? Troy, this is a flyer giveaway from one of the convention booths."

"Yes it is, Annie." Troy said seriously, "But everyone knows you can't start talking about a plan without laying out paper like you have a plan. It's unprofessional."

Annie threw her hands up in defeat.

"So this is what we do," Troy continued, taking the paper back from Annie, "We go back in there, but this time with our hoods up."

"Troy, we don't  _have_  hoods." Annie said in exasperation.

"Change of plan. I go back in there and buy you guys two outfits  _with_  hoods. Then I'll come back here so you guys can change and we can all go inside again."

Abed Solo and Annie nodded in agreement.

"Make sure it's something we can put on over our outfits." Annie added. "Abed can probably get away with a sweater since his pants are pretty normal… but I'm going to need pants and a top."

"Short-shorts and a sports bra, got it."

"Troy!"

"And a cape!" Troy quickly added.

"Troy, I said to put  _over_  our outfits. To cover us? A sports bra and short-shorts won't do that."

"I said a cape too!"

She gave him a threatening look.

"Okay. Sweats and a shirt. Stop pointing your laser eyes at me."

Annie smiled, pleased.

Troy turned to leave.

"Hey Luke?" Abed called after him.

Troy looked over his shoulder.

"May the Force be with you."

Troy gave Abed a smile and put his hood up and Annie watched him disappear around the corner of a building. She felt a jacket being placed around her shoulders. Annie looked over her shoulder and at Abed who just finished putting his vest on her. He shrugged, his eyes focused on one of the seams on the vest. "You were shivering. It's not much, but it's better than what you had on."

"Abed?" Annie asked, unsure.

Abed's eyes moved to her face.

"You're not Han Solo anymore?"

"No. The jacket came off." He walked a couple steps to the sidewalk and sat down on the space of curb in between Annie's car and another in front of it. He placed his hands carefully on his knees.

Annie followed his example and sat down beside him, pulling the vest closer around her arms. "Aren't you cold?"

Abed shook his head. "The female body conserves more heat around core organs causing less warmth to circulate to extremities like hands or feet— making women feel cold faster."

"Thank… you, I think."

"No problem."

They sat in silence for a moment. Then spoke at the same time,

"It was cool of you to come as Leia—"

"About the Firefly panel—"

They both paused.

"You first," Abed decided.

"Okay, well," Annie started, taking a deep breath. "I am really,  _really_  sorry about you and Troy missing the Firefly panel. It was my fault."

"No, it probably was better this way. The actors are never as interesting as the characters they play. I was setting us up for regret." Abed nodded, his eyes far away in thought. "Yeah. It was better that we missed the panel. I'd only be disappointed to find that Summer Glau didn't actually have the inner turmoil and complexities of a psychic girl prodigy pursued by the Blue Sun Corporation."

Annie looked confused. "What?"

"You know, 'two by two, hands of blue'—"

"No, I know who the Blue Gloves are— we had a Firefly marathon last month, remember? I meant, why did you punch the reporter then? It was not very in-character of Han Solo to just punch anyone out of the blue."

"Oh. That." Abed looked at his fingers curiously, as if he just realized they were broken. "He touched you. It made you uncomfortable."

There was a short pause. Annie's eyes widened a little at the edges in realization, then softened. Abed was pointedly not looking at her while he examined his hands, turning his hand over so it was palm up…

"Yes," Annie began, slowly, "but you shouldn't hit someone for it."

"Why not?" Abed said so quickly it was almost an interruption. His attention snapped back to her and for a moment Annie saw that he was livid. Just for a moment. Then it was gone, a thin façade of control slipping easily over his features. He looked back at his broken fingers, the only evidence that he was ever furious playing in the tremor of his hands.

Another pause passed as Annie took Abed's demeanor in. His mannerisms felt familiar— her thoughts traced back to a vague memory: Abed examining his Indiana Jones whip as she scolded him about leaving if he had been so livid... Her eyes wandered the features of his face, in quick searching movements.

"Because," Annie began, licking her lips unconsciously. She wondered why her mouth was suddenly dry and her words were all of a sudden so hard to find, "you could've gotten hurt. What if he punched you back?"

"Then I would have punched him again. Harder." His voice was devoid of any trace of emotion, yet Annie knew he meant every word.

"But Abed, hitting people is wrong.  _Violence_ , is wrong—"

"What he did to you was wrong."

"Well, yes—"

"Annie," Abed said, looking away from his hands and staring placidly at something across the road, "I believe in eye for an eye. I cheer for the underdogs on TV not because it's popular, but because in TV the formula dictates they get their revenge against the bully. I've come to the defense of my friends before. And so have you. I think you will recall the fight for Jeff's manhood during our first Christmas together two years ago?"

"But that was different."

"How? Jeff was threatened. You were threatened. When you boil it down, the fundamental elements of the conflict remain the same. If anything, yours warrants more reason as you had been physically and mentally violated whereas Jeff got in trouble only because he deliberately involved himself in the crossfire to defend me for getting cookies for the group."

"But that affected the whole group," Annie reasoned, soothingly, "That was important."

Abed looked at Annie again. "You're important."

Annie's eyes widened under the weight of his words. As if realizing he said too much, Abed looked back at his injured hand, resting on his knee. He continued on. "By hitting the reporter I have ensured that he will think twice before harassing another woman again."

Annie's expression suddenly turned coy and a little shy. "Abed… when did you become so chivalrous?"

"Wait. What?" Abed glanced back at Annie, a little panicked. "I wasn't expecting that. Listen, Annie, you can't just do a 180 degree turn like this without warning. It throws off the balance of the story, not to mention our relationship dynamic— especially when people expect a certain character reaction from you."

Annie's demure mannerisms didn't change, in fact she looked intrigued. She smiled a little, looking up at him through the length of her lashes. He continued on, faster now, his uninjured hand switching back and forth in a quick succession of pointing at her and then himself. "What was supposed to happen is that we share a sort of companionate moment in silence while the new advice and lessons we gathered from each other settle— What are you doing?"

Annie was slowly leaning into him. "Abed, are you nervous?"

His hand stopped with the pointing. "What? No. Annie whatever you are thinking about it is a bad idea and you should stop."

"Stop what?" her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Annie," Abed said warningly, as their proximity decreased. "Annie, you are confused because I just played hero and now you are confusing me with Jeff."

As if someone just dunked cold water on her, Annie withdrew away from him, repulsed. "What has  _Jeff_  got to do with this?"

"A lot actually," Abed said, seemingly more comfortable with their new distance. "We brought him up in conversation a minute ago, remember? Besides, seeing as he is your primary romantic interest I think—"

"Abed, no. I am not confusing you with Jeff—"

Abed cocked his head to the side, confused, "You're not?"

"—I just think it's very sweet that you care that much. About me. And I wanted to thank you." One of her shoulders went up in a shrug with the words "thank you" as if she was shy to say the phrase at all.

"Oh." Abed said, not sure what to say in response. "Well, this is new. Am I supposed to say thank you back? Wait— it just came to me," he smiled, a rare, toothless, large Abed smile, that pushed back his cheeks and revealed two large dimples. He pointed at her with his uninjured hand. "You're welcome."

Annie smiled gratefully back at him.

A second passed, two, then Annie leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. She was already pulling back away from him when she realized what she had done. She opened her eyes in time to see Abed beginning to open his, and she felt an onslaught of panic start to form at the pit of her stomach. Abed only had the chance to open his eyes and give her a curious, confused expression the word "what" forming at his lips before Annie went haphazardly in for a second time with every intention of prolonging what she was sure would be a thorough analysis of her poor judgment.

Their noses bumped, their lips slid together, and then she was full on making out with him, her nervousness making the kiss sloppy and not at all romantic. Her hand went out to his knee to steady herself as she was suddenly wracked with anxiety at what would happen when the kiss was over— and it was bad, it was getting worse—

"Ow," Abed mumbled through her mouth, "Hand."

She pulled away from him, her hand lifting quickly from his injured one that had been resting on his knee. "Oh my God," she said, hysteria slipping through her words. She transferred the feeling into worry. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Abed said, nonplussed. He wiggled his injured hand a little for emphasis.

"Oh God." Annie repeated. Her face started crinkling, she felt her eyes begin to water and she— oh God— she was going to  _cry._

"What's wrong?" Abed asked, his expression concerned.

"Oh God, oh God. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I— oh my God."

"Annie?"

Annie was wringing her hands frantically on her lap. Abed automatically reached for one of them with his good hand. He grasped it comfortingly, his thumb stroking the skin between her thumb and forefinger.

"I—I—" she was taking deep breaths now. "I am  _really_ sorry about that just now."

"No apology necessary," Abed said, perfectly composed. "You were overwhelmed, and we shared a moment. It was actually pretty appropriate. I was aware of the 30 percent chance you might have gone for it." He gave her a small smile, "You beat the odds."

Annie started to calm down a little. "Really?" A tear she had been struggling to keep at bay dropped down her cheek when she blinked, and she gave him a watery smile. "I mean, like, it wasn't weird or anything?"

"Yeah." Abed said, still stroking her hand patiently, "Well, the second one was kind of messy, but the first one was nice." Abed withdrew his hand from hers to unbutton and reach into one of his belt compartments of his Han Solo outfit. He pulled out a Kleenex and offered it to her, which she took gratefully before dabbing it on her cheeks. She laughed a little, sheepishly, balling the Kleenex into one hand. Abed reached over and slipped his hand back into her free one again. He gave her a fleeting smile.

"How do you always know what to say to make me feel better?"

"Mm." Abed looked up thoughtfully. "Nope. Can't answer that. Usually I am told I say all the wrong things."

Annie laughed lightly through drying tears, gently hitting Abed on the shoulder with the hand that wasn't holding his. "That's  _not_  true."

Abed's eyes met hers and he smiled again, briefly. "Would it make you feel better if I agreed with you?"

Annie's expression turned quizzical. It was hard to tell if Abed was flirting with her. She cocked her head to the side, opening her mouth as if to tease him, but then thought better of it. Her gaze lowered to their joined hands, and her mouth closed to smile a little, almost shyly— but mostly in quiet gratitude. She never had a friend quite like Abed, and that familiar feeling she got every time they shared a... a  _moment—_ after the Dreamatorium, when he asked her to move in, watching chick flicks with her while she tried to get over Vaughn— returned. She couldn't quite pinpoint or describe it except as intense appreciation. Abed was her rock. There was irony to finding the most imaginative and detached from reality friend she had ever known as the one who anchored her.

As if reading her mind Abed squeezed her hand lightly. She squeezed back.

Just then they saw Troy jogging up the steps and over to them. He was carrying a large bag and looked proud. "Abed, found the Inspector Spacetime sweater you always wanted!" He skidded to a stop in front of them and held the sweater up before placing it across Abed's knees. Troy was about to go for a Troy-and-Abed handshake, but stopped himself as if he remembered Abed's broken hand and instead kneeled down on Abed's other side where Annie wasn't sitting. He leaned forward and bumped his shoulder lightly twice with Abed's as a substitute handshake and Abed gave him a look of thanks before saying "pew." Troy grinned before he looked at Annie, his expression turning more serious. He put the bag down gently at her feet. "Annie, they only had a medium and I hope you're okay with sweats. I was gonna text you about your pants size but my mom told me that if I ever asked that question again I would get 'it.' I don't know what 'it' is, but she made it sound threatening enough for me to know it was not going to be muffins."

Annie smiled. "That's fine, Troy. A metal bikini under anything smaller than a medium and sweats would probably be really uncomfortable anyway."

"Cool." Troy said, using Abed's word. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "How about you guys get changed so we could go back in there?"

Annie took off the Han Solo vest and placed it in the bag. She slipped easily into her new outfit after she figured out how to get the overlaying cloth of her metal bottom off, and then both Troy and Annie helped Abed get into his sweater without further hurting his hand.

"The rest of the night went on normally. Well, as normal as a day with Troy, Abed, and Annie could be."

"Abed, are you going to narrate our day again?"

"Oh, I love it when you do that! Can you refer to me as Spider-Troy again..."

 

 

FIN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and joining me on my first fic journey on the Annie/Abed ship all the way back in like 2012 haha! I hope you all liked it. Please drop me a comment with your thoughts or a kudos-- I'd love some feedback on the whole story or this moment that they shared. I have another Annie/Abed fic on ff.net that's incomplete but if I ever complete it I'll crosspost it here as well. Have a great day! =)


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